2010

PipeLineNews Archives: February 2013

Was Key Boko Haram Leader Killed?

February 28, 2013 - San Francisco, CA - PipeLineNews.org - According to numerous reports, including the usually reliable AlAfrica.com [see, Soni Daniel, Nigeria: Boko Haram Kingpin, Three Others Killed in Borno], Boko Haram has been dealt a serious blow as a result of action taken by an elite Nigerian anti-terror force.

"...A top Boko Haram commander was Tuesday killed in a morning raid carried out by snipers deployed from the Joint Task Force..."

Boko Haram, an al-Qaeda affiliate operating primarily in an around Nigeria, recently kidnapped a number of French nationals, including children and have taken them to an undisclosed location, where the groups awaits the results of its demands.

The terrorist group has been releasing its statements via YouTube. However the JTF has made the request that Boko Haram deal directly with it rather than use the popular internet video website. The effect of Boko Haram's campaign of terror is being felt heavily throughout Nigeria and has materially weakened the country due to its numerous attacks against the nation's oil infrastructure.

Boko Haram Atrocity: Kidnaps French Children in Cameroon, Smuggles them into Nigeria

February 19, 2013 - San Francisco, CA - PipeLineNews.org - Boko Haram, one of Africa's many al-Qaeda affiliates [this one based out of oil-rich Nigeria] has stooped to a new low.

There are reports just coming in that 7 French nationals including 3 children were kidnapped Tuesday from their location in Nigeria's normally quiescent neighbor, Cameroon.

As today UK Telegraph reports:

"Francois Hollande, the French president, pointed the finger at al-Qaeda allied fundamentalist group Boko Haram, based in neighbouring Nigeria, blaming them for the kidnapping Tuesday.

The seven hostages were taken from Cameroon's far north close to the Waza National Park and Lake Chad, both attractions for tourists on adventure holidays. The semi-arid area lies alongside the border with Nigeria, and Islamist strongholds in towns there, including Maiduguri, are less than 100 miles to the west..." [source, Mike Pflanz, French children kidnapped 'by Boko Haram' in Cameroon]

For the record, the Telegraph is one of the few remaining credible legacy MSM news sources. In a day when news from Africa is spotty at best, unless one digs for it intentionally, the Tele actually maintains a West African desk - my guess is that Mr. Pflanz knows more about what is going on in Western Africa than does the entire State Dept. section combined.

The exact status of the adults and kids as we go to press is not clear, though one would hope that at least the children might be spared Boko Haram's gruesome slice-'em-and-dice-'em approach. Unfortunately we have learned from previous experience with African terrorism that no atrocity is out of bounds when it comes to these fanatical Islamic butchers.

We will of course keep our readers posted as to further developments when they become available.

February 18, 2013 - San Francisco, CA - PipeLineNews.org - While assurances are being made by members of Barack Obama's witless national security team that al-Qaeda no longer poses a threat, in the real world, al-Qaeda franchises are growing in strength and sophistication throughout the Arabian Peninsula and Northern Africa.

Most active are al-Qaeda in the Islamic Maghreb, al-Qaeda in the Arabian Peninsula, al-Shabaab and Boko Haram.

Instead of waning in influence after the death of bin-Laden, these Islamic terror groups have flourished, in no small part because their rapidly increasing influence has largely been ignored by this administration. Additonally, the ability of these generally weak central governments [such as they are in some cases] to deal with such a level of organized and well financed jihadist violence is limited.

The administration has made every attempt to define the threat as coming from a single entity, bin-Laden's original al-Qaeda group.

This allows Obama to avoid dealing with the underlying cause of the jihadistic violence - the revolutionary ideology of Islamism, thus allowing it to deal with these matters as if they were the concern of law enforcement.

If the foreign policy Einstein's in this administration had been correct then upon the death of Binny, the threat should have simply shriveled up and blown away, something which clearly didn't happen.

This is such a simplistic charade that it makes about as much sense as saying that because Ronald McDonald has been killed so have McDonalds 35,000 or so franchises.

Let's do a quick heads up on just a few details describing the current sit-rep.

Boko Haram - The group has nearly brought the Nigerian economy to its knees, in the North which accounts for much of the country's economic activity and in the country's rich oil fields which are under constant predation:

Commercial activities in the northern trade hub of Kano are down by half since 2010 because of the campaign of violence waged by militant group Boko Haram and government efforts to curb it, says the Kano traders’ union. "The north is losing heavily due to the violence. When you destabilize Kano, which is the commercial nerve centre of the north, you are threatening the socioeconomic well-being of the north," Nigeria's Information Minister Labaran Maku told reporters in February 2012. [source, Boko Haram attacks cripple northern Nigeria's economy, IRIN, a service provided by one of the UN's many departments]

Boko Haram has also been responsible for a wave of kidnappings in Nigeria, primarily of foreign aid and oil field workers. In a recent case the group beheaded 3 North Korean doctors, certainly an intimidating action. [fore further information please refer to Boko Haram offshoot claims responsibility in Nigeria kidnapping]

"Kenyan police seized more than 150 detonators in Nairobi on Friday, highlighting the security risks the east African country faces ahead of an election next year because of its struggle with al Qaeda-linked militants in neighboring Somalia. Home to a large Somali population, Kenya has been hit by a wave of grenade attacks after its troops crossed into Somalia last year to crush al Shabaab Islamists it blamed for kidnappings and bomb attacks on its own soil..." [source, Kenyan police seize over 150 bomb detonators from Nairobi house, Chicago Tribune]

It has also served as the head of the Islamist spear in Mali. So serious is the threat here that French troops were committed in an effort to repel the jihadist entity. [see for example, Al-Qaeda plan for northern Mali revealed, News 24]

Al-Qaeda in the Arabian Peninsula is also conducting jihadist operations wherever the opportunity presents, as detailed in the following, they have called for "holy war" in Mali.

Al-Qaeda in the Arabian Peninsula - "Has called for jihad in Mali, a monitoring group said Tuesday, after four days of suicide attacks and guerrilla fighting in territory French-led forces reclaimed from Islamist rebels. The call to holy war from AQAP, the global network's Yemen-based branch -- which US officials have labelled Al-Qaeda's most dangerous franchise -- came as troops sought to tighten a security lock-down in Gao, the largest city in northern Mali and the target of a string of Islamist attacks." [source, Al-Qaeda's Arabian branch calls for holy war in Mali, AFP]

Though the above thumbnail is nowhere near exhaustive, as one can see though its founder is gone, al-Qaeda has only become stronger, now taking advantage of Africa's political instability.

Blindered by its lack of a basic threat doctrine, a serious one, involving not simply al-Qaeda and its associates but the associated political ideology which serves as the driver for world wide jihadism, the Obama administration is unwilling to acknowledge that the problem is far wider than a few renegade groups, that this is a movement whose plan for domination and eventual submission of the non-Muslim world by fundamentalist revolutionary Muslims whose world-view has become so prevalent that it's now clearly main-stream.

"Sen. Hagel has a highly troubling record on critical matters of national security which we believe should disqualify him from serving as Secretary of Defense, including 1) his support for U.S. nuclear disarmament, demonstrated by his co-authorship of the 2012 “Global Zero” report; 2) his assertion after passage of the Budget Control Act of 2011, which already cut defense spending by $487 billion over ten years, that the Department of Defense is “bloated” and needs to be “paired down”; 3) his demonstrated hostility towards the State of Israel, our most reliable ally in the Middle East; and 4) his failure to appreciate the threat posed by Iran, as demonstrated by his past lack of support for sanctions and his public statement that military action against Iran was not a “viable, feasible, or responsible option.”

The editorial staff of PipeLineNews entirely and without reservation supports the CSP's position on this matter. Mr. Hagel appears to be an unsuitable candidate with potentially very troubling ties to funding sources which are suspect - according to knowledgeable sources who wish to remain anonymous - from a national security perspective. These allegation must be given a thorough and fair hearing by the entire Senate.

We believe that if Mr. Hagel wishes to serve his country, and we have no reason to believe this is not his intent, his best course of action would be to gracefully withdraw his name from contention. If after dealing with these matters it becomes apparent to a bi-partisan majority that Mr. Hagel is indeed suitable, then he can be given a fair hearing by the entire Senate followed quickly by an up or down vote.

We will support a truly non-partisan vote, under the proviso that further hearings are held and important documents are presented by Mr. Hagel's counselors into evidence as part of the official record. A party line vote on this nomination is unacceptable.

The Dept. of Defense, which faces the serious potential of having its ability to defend the United States seriously compromised, perhaps irretrievably, by the sequestration process, has far too critical a mission to have its reputation and therefore effectiveness impaired by the mere perception of impropriety.

America deserves better and so does Western civilization - If the American flame of freedom is allowed to burn out, so does the hope of the world.

February 12, 2013 - San Francisco, CA - PipeLineNews.org - The Department of Justice (DOJ) announced a few weeks ago that a settlement has been reached with the Southern California city of Lomita regarding its dispute with the Islamic Center of South Bay. The dispute revolved around the refusal of the City Council of Lomita to grant a rebuilding permit to the Center which was so expansive in scope it would have allowed the Center to build a two story place of worship to replace the present allegedly antiquated structures.

While the matter awaits a hearing by the U. S. District Court in Los Angeles, for now, the Islamists are cheering.

MPAC, CAIR And Federally Countenanced Intimidation

By CHERYL GATESWORTH

February 12, 2013 - San Francisco, CA - PipeLineNews.org - The Department of Justice (DOJ) announced a few weeks ago that a settlement has been reached with the Southern California city of Lomita regarding its dispute with the Islamic Center of South Bay. The dispute revolved around the refusal of the City Council of Lomita to grant a rebuilding permit to the Center which was so expansive in scope it would have allowed the Center to build a two story place of worship to replace the present allegedly antiquated structures.

While the matter awaits a hearing by the U. S. District Court in Los Angeles, for now, the Islamists are cheering.

In March of 2010 the Islamic Center of South Bay applied to the City Council for a rebuilding permit in order to replace their present antiquated (as they were termed) structures. The five person council voted 4 to 0 (there was one abstention) to reject the request based on the adverse traffic situation that it was felt would result. Actually a study by the city had indicated that there would not be an adverse traffic effect. However a group of neighbors in Lomita, living near the Center, opposed the issuance of the rebuilding permit and took issue with the study, claiming that there would be an adverse traffic effect. Their spokesperson insisted that the original traffic study was flawed and failed to take into account two factors: first that not all cars would have multiple passengers, thereby making parking more of a problem than the study acknowledged and that the new structure with its multiple purposes would accommodate more than worshippers, thereby increasing the number of people who would visit the proposed Islamic Center.

The Islamic Center immediately charged "Islamophobia," asserting that there was an undercurrent of disdain for Muslims that permeated the City Council and resulted in its refusal to grant the rebuilding permit.

Enter the Muslim Public Affairs Council (MPAC) which, learning of the matter, went into action thorough its Washington, D. C. office. MPAC originated in Los Angeles and recently opened an office in Washington, D. C. and through its government engagement policies at the federal level alerted the DOJ. Meanwhile the Los Angeles/Anaheim Council on American Islamic Relations (CAIR) office announced a lawsuit against the city of Lomita which it would pursue working in conjunction with a civil liberties law firm.

MPAC participates on a continuing basis with the DOJ’s Civil Right Division interagency meetings. Indeed, the office in D. C. was opened for the purpose of involving MPAC personnel directly with government agencies and cultivating members of Congress and their staff. Valuable government resources are therefore available to Muslims in pursuit of this type of litigation - a very big hammer.

Both CAIR and MPAC have established a friendly working relationship with Thomas J. Perez, the Assistant Attorney General for Civil Rights. Mr. Perez is a frequent participant at conventions of Muslim organizations where he can be heard apologizing for government laxity in addressing Muslim civil rights complaints, urging more Muslims to make their complaints known, and, in addressing young people, asking them to come to Washington, D. C. and work in the DOJ.

Is there a shortage of Muslim complaints? I highly doubt it.

As a matter of fact official FBI crime statistics, complied every year continually prove, beyond doubt, that - far from being Islamophobic - in America, Muslims suffer almost zero violent crime which is attributable to their faith. This is a testament to the basic goodness of the average American. Bottom line, their is essentially no measurable discrimination directed at American Muslims. But facts seldom matter to those who play this malicious blame game.

This brings us to our second and third formulas:

MPAC + CAIR = team

And.

Team + government = victory

The basis of the action against the city of Lomita is a federal law entitled the Religious Land Use and Institutionalized Persons Act of 2000 (RLUIPA) of 2000. It was passed to ensure that persons confined to institutions would not have to overcome substantial burdens in order to attend religious worship and to enjoy the fellowship intrinsic to such activity, and that religious buildings would not be subject to zoning restrictions on their property use. There is often a conflict between this federal law and the rights of municipalities to set their own zoning and land use parameters.

To cite an example of how this law has been used historically - years ago, the city of Chicago sought to expand the land used by O’Hare airport and in doing so sought to appropriate church land which included two church cemeteries.

Because the plaintiff [St. John's United Church of Christ] either did not or could not demonstrated that the church was "targeted" i.e. intentionally discriminated against, the city eventually prevailed, so the extant case involving the City of Lomita has not been settled, though we assume that upon appeal, the original decision might well be overturned...assuming precedent means anything.

What has been proven however is that under the current leadership the DOJ is quite willing to tip the scales of justice for ideological reasons. Thus DOJ has "tipped its hand," demonstrating that it is willing to disregard precedent to [at least temporarily] in order to "gift" the Islamic Center of South Bay exactly what it desired.

What may be lost in the weeds of this controversy is the fact that both MPAC and CAIR are Muslim Brotherhood front groups, not that it matters at all to Holder's corrupt DOJ.

For example, MPAC Senior Advisor and founder, Dr. Maher Hathout has considerable Muslim Brotherhood affiliations [detailed by this author in a December 24, 2012 Pipeline News piece - Islamist Muslim Public Affairs Council Dupes Pasadena Episcopal Church, and his handpicked MPAC CEO, Salaam Al Marayati, was recently identified in the Egyptian Arabic language magazine, Rose El Youssef, as one of six Brotherhood members in prominent positions in the United States.

CAIR was formally identified as a Brotherhood front during the successful federal prosecution of the Holy Land Foundation for Relief and Development [HLF] which took place in 2007 through 2008 [the first hearing resulted in a mistrial, the second found all parties guilty on a total of 108 charges. it is believed that HLF funneled at least $12 million to HAMAS, the terrorist organization created by the Muslim Brotherhood.

Despite these troubling associations, judicial misconstruction [in our opinion based upon the St. John's precedent] of the applicable zoning law resulted the city of Lomita losing the first round of the legal battle and was ordered to expedite the renewed claim of the Islamic Center of South Bay.

Understandably, Lomita City Attorney, Christ Hogan, was concerned, stating: ”It’s a little alarming the federal government would come in and second-guess a land use decision like this.” While it was not necessary that the plaintiff prove discrimination, only that the decision placed a substantial burden on the Islamic Center of South Bay to conduct religious services, the federal government mounted a mini-Inquisition, descending on Lomita in March or 2012 and questioning 13 former and current City Council members, Planning Commission members, and other officials.

Kid glove treatment for the Islamists, and an iron fist for city officials trying to follow the law.

Now we come to kicker in the original formula - the aforementioned jizya.

If one looks at the history of CAIR and its war against those whom they allege "slander Islam" [a major violation of the Shari'a] - they consider the truth to be no defense against slander and therefore the usual route of apology and retraction is not enough to assuage them.

In their eyes the "offending" party must, in essence, render a tribute of some type, perhaps a contribution to a Muslim cause or attend a re-education course on Islam. Under classical Islamic law, the dhimmi must have his nose rubbed in his transgression like a poorly behaved dog.

Unbelievably, in the Lomita case, the City Council members face forced attendance at "re-education" classes explaining the RLUIPA and must make periodic reports to the DOJ.

And thus the circle completed, MPAC and CAIR have their jizya...

End Notes:

1. The jizya is an Arabic term which basically translates to "extortion payment." Historically, victorious Muslim armies have given the conquered population a choice, either convert to Islam, pay the jizya tribute money, or suffer the consequences at the hands of barbarians.

Even under this system, populations which have paid the tribute are still at best second class citizens with little in the way of rights when it comes to dealing with Muslims. This class of citizens are referred to derisively as dhimmis, an Arabic term meaning living in a state of constant humiliation. As if to drive that point home, in many instances the dhimmis were forced to wear religious identifiers around their necks, pinned to an outer garment or some other form of display. Jews were forced to wear large Stars of David and Christians of course were forced to wear crucifixes.

February 11, 2013 - San Francisco, CA - PipeLineNews.org - Dozens of young Muslim jihadists from Holland are currently fighting in Syria and have joined radical jihadist movements there. In recent months, the number of jihadists from the Netherlands who are now fighting in Syria even exceeds the total number of Dutch jihadists who traveled to Syria in the year 2011. This warning was issued by Rob Bertholee, the head of the Netherlands Intelligence and Security Service (AIVD), in the daily TV program “Nieuwsuur.”

Among the organizations that the jihadists from Holland have joined is a movement called Jabath Al-Nusra, recently placed by the U.S. on the international terrorist organizations list. Al-Nusra is believed to be a front organization of the notorious Al-Qaeda in Iraq (AQI) terror group.

The AIVD fears that these Dutch jihadists are now becoming experienced “holy warriors” and religious fanatics who will someday return to the Netherlands and then stage terror attacks there. Most of the jihadists from Holland are second generation Muslim immigrants. Three potential jihadists have already been arrested in the Dutch city of Rotterdam in November 2012. They planned to join the jihad in Syria but their leader suddenly decided to marry a Moroccan woman in Utrecht and stage a terror attack in Belgium instead of going to Syria. A Somali imam in Rotterdam performed the Islamic marriage.

Young radical Muslims from other European countries are also traveling to Syria. A French police source quoted by Radio France Internationale (RFI) recently claimed that “several dozen French nationals had traveled to Syria to fight in the conflict there, sometimes in groups linked to Al-Qaeda.”

Syrian jihadists pose a serious security threat to Europe. They are extremely well organized and capable of forming dangerous terror cells in European countries. Former Syrian president Hafez Al-Assad, the father of the current president Bashar Al-Assad, cracked down on the Syrian Muslim Brotherhood in the early 1980s. Many radical Muslims from Syria fled to Europe. One of them was Imad Eddin Barakat Yarkas (“Abu Dahdah”) who arrived in Spain in 1986. Yaskas would later join Al-Qaeda and play an important role in the preparations of the 9/11 attacks in the U.S.A. He personally knew Mohammed Atta, the leader of the 9/11 “operation.” Before visiting Osama bin Laden in Afghanistan Atta studied in the German city of Hamburg where he met Mohammed Haydar Zammar, another Al-Qaeda operative and a successful recruiter as well. Zammar was born in the Syrian city of Aleppo.

Hundreds of thousands of Syrian refugees have now poured into neighboring countries, and many are on their way to Europe. We don’t know how many potential terrorists there are among them, but even if the percentage would be less than one percent, there would be sufficient reason to worry about it.

Mali and the terrorist threat in France

Muslim immigrants from Mali pose a security threat in France, especially those who are living in the notorious Parisian suburbs. The suburb of Montreuil is now called “the first Malian city in France.” There are well over 120,000 Malian immigrants in France. They often practice Female Genital Mutilation (FGM) and polygamy. Overly large polygamous families lead to anti-social behavior among youths who lack a father figure. Men live in apartments with three or four wives, their children often do not go to school and are roaming the streets. Sometimes there are twenty or more children in just one apartment. A Malian immigrant in France with two wives says: “God allows us to do so. We have the right to have three to four wives.” Polygamy is prohibited in France but it very hard to enforce the law among the Muslim immigrant communities in the big cities. The suburbs of Paris en Marseille have partially evolved into real no-go areas controlled by local and extremely well armed African or North African gangs who do not hesitate to kill policemen or attack bus drivers and trains.

Quite recently, the high speed train TVG from Marseille to Nice was attacked by a gang of twenty youths from the highly problematic Marseille suburb of Air Bel where Muslims reportedly set up unofficial checkpoints. The gang failed to enter the train, though, and the police arrived just in time to arrest ten of them. French security officials immediately expressed concern, indicating that such attacks pose a serious security threat. No doubt, the gang’s intention was to rob the passengers of the train. It was not the first time that angry youths from immigrant neighborhoods tried to stop a train near Marseille.

Disgruntled African young males from the suburbs are sometimes successfully targeted by Al-Qaeda and other jihadist groups who operate in local mosques or through the internet. French police have already arrested “youths they suspect of trying to join Islamist extremists in West Africa,” the Washington Post reported recently. “Now France has a massive problem with home-grown Islamic terrorism, rampant crime committed by Muslims and many severe social and security issues,” the Washington Post continues. “In the latest case, authorities detained four people in a Paris suburb who are believed to have links to a Frenchman caught last year in Niger on the border with Mali as radical fighters were expanding their control in the region.” “Those with dual citizenship are of special concern to French authorities, because they can travel freely to and from Africa unnoticed in countries within Europe’s larger border free area.” The paper quoted a French judicial official who said: “Of the four detained Tuesday (February 5) in and around the Paris suburb l’Hay les Roses, three are French citizens – including one with joint Franco-Algerian citizenship – and one is Malian.” The French weekly Le Point reported that several French jihadists traveled to the Sahel zone in recent months. One of them was French-Congolese citizen Cédric Labo Ngoyi Bungenda who was arrested in Niamey, the capital of Niger.

Another jihadist is Mohammed Djouad, a French-Algerian from Montpellier in Southern France. He was arrested in April 2012 just before he wanted to travel to a terrorist training camp in Indonesia. He subsequently planned to join the jihad in Somalia or Yemen. He was befriended with Mohammed Merah, another French-Algerian terrorist who attacked a Jewish school in Toulouse in March 2012, killing a rabbi and three children.

Baba Pascal Camara, a staff member of the Library of Timbuktu in Northern Mali where Al-Qaeda jihadists destroyed many ancient treasures and manuscripts, was interviewed by the Spanish newspaper El País after the town was liberated. He claims that the jihadists were Algerians, Malians and a man “who looked almost white.” According to El País, he may have referred to a French citizen who was a member of Ansar Dine (a Taliban-like movement) and who lashed out against France in a video. Baba Pascal Camara told El País that the radicals decided that his library consisted of “a collection of Jewish books.”

One of the reasons why French president François Hollande decided to intervene in Mali was the real prospect of Mali becoming another Al-Qaeda safe haven in Africa and a magnet and recruitment center for Muslim jihadists and other radicals from France. The French intervention was just in time.

But the French unwisely announced that they will leave Mali in March this year – far too early, that is. The Muslim radicals have not yet been defeated. Instead, they withdrew to the desert, the mountains or mingled with the local population. They know that the Malian army is no match for them. On February 8, a suicide bomber killed a Malian soldier at a checkpoint in Goa. It was the first suicide bombing in the history of Mali. A few days later there was another attack and there were reports of clashes between insurgents and the military. Many suicide bombings are likely to follow. Look what happened and is still happening in Iraq and Afghanistan.

The threat from North Africa

It was back in 1998 that a Tunisian man named Moezedinne Garsallaoui traveled to Switzerland– as a refugee. He would become an important Al-Qaeda recruiter of jihadists from Europe who would travel to Afghanistan or Pakistan to receive training in terrorist training camps. He married Malika Aroud, a Moroccan immigrant in Belgium, also known as “the mother of Al-Qaeda in Europe.” Osama bin Laden is her hero. Both Garsallaoui (“Al-Andalusi”) and Al-Aroud were convicted by Belgian and Swiss courts. Garsallaoui fled to Pakistan/Afganistan where he resumed his activities of recruiting and training terrorists and jihadists from Europe. One of his European recruits was Mohammed Merah whom he reportedly trained in Pakistan’s restive tribal areas in September 2011. Garsallaoui was killed in a drone strike in North Waziristan in October 2012. Certainly not all drone strikes are unjustified.

“Al-Qaeda in the Islamic Maghreb” (AQIM) is the most dangerous terrorist organization in North Africa and they are very well armed. They are involved in kidnapping, drug smuggling and migrant trafficking. An Algerian terrorist named Moktar Belmoktar was a senior figure in AQIM, but he formed his own group in December 2012 calling it Al-Mulathemeen (“The Masked Ones”) of which the “Signatories in Blood” group is believed to be a subgroup. On January 16, 2013, they attacked the Algerian Aménas Gas Project complex close to the Libyan border, taking quite a number of hostages. The Algerian army intervened and killed the hostage takers. Most hostages were then freed. The New York Times reported that holding hostages for ransom taking was not part of the plan. They wanted “turn the forest of pipes and tubes into a giant bomb, and to blow up everything and anyone around. What none of them knew was exactly how, in the endless maze of metal, to do it.”

The so-called Arab Spring did not meet the expectations of most young people in Egypt, Tunisia and Libya. Instead, Muslim radicals are gaining ground. Many young women who demonstrated in Cairo’s Tahrir square were subjected to sexual harassment and militant clerics justified such evil practices. In Tunisia, Chokri Belaid, a courageous and outspoken critic of the radicals, was murdered.

Therefore, Europe is likely to face another unwelcome influx of economic and political refugees from North Africa and Egypt. Militant Islamic groups and disgruntled individuals will join the flow of refugees. This is precisely how it happened in the past and it will not be very different now or in the future. Muslim radicals in Europe are invariably part of the immigrant communities.

Somali terrorists

Somalis are among the most problematic groups of African immigrants. Not only do they often depend on welfare and practice Female Genital Mutilation (a very primitive custom indeed), but also are they, in too many cases at least, susceptible to recruitment by jihadist groups. Danish cartoonist Kurt Westergaard faced and still faces serious death threats after he drew a cartoon depicting the Muslim prophet Mohammed as a terrorist – the so-called “bomb-in-the-turban cartoon.” On January 1, 2008, a Somali Muslim intruder armed with an axe tried to kill him when he was at home. Lars Hedegard, another vocal Islam critic in Denmark, was attacked by a Muslim intruder on February 5, 2013. This intruder tried kill Hedegard with a pistol but misfired and then managed to escape. Hedegard and Westergaard are friends.

Not so few Somali immigrants in the United States returned to Somalia to join jihad with Al-Qaeda linked Al-Shabaab. A number of them carried out suicide attacks. More than twenty young Somali Muslim immigrants left the Minneapolis area between December 2007 and December 2009 with a view to joining the violent jihad. Minneapolis is a city with a very large Somali immigrant community. The Netherlands Intelligence and Security Service (AIVD) informed the Dutch Immigration and Naturalization Service (IND) in January 2009 that five young American Somali males posed a threat to national security. After their jihadist training in a Somali training camp, they planned to return to the U.S. via the Netherlands. Since early 2009, the Dutch Security Service is increasingly focusing on Africa where “many countries are vulnerable to the terrorist threat and violent coups as well as to the threat posed by criminals who operate on an international scale (drugs) and corruption.”

More recently, the threat from Somalia may have subsided somewhat thanks to the successful military intervention by other African nations. But Al-Shabab’s international terrror network has not yet been eliminated and the movement still poses a threat.

Emerson Vermaat is an investigative reporter in the Netherlands and PipeLineNews.org' European Editor. He maintains a website: emersonvermaat.com.

Washington Post, February 7, 2013 (“France, wary of backlash from their war in Mali, tries to root out would-be jihadists at home”); rfi.fr, February 5, 2013 (“Four arrested near Paris in Africa jihadist probe in France”). Also on Syria.

February 7, 2013 - San Francisco, CA - PipeLineNews.org - So far there are about 70 newly submitted California health and education bills that could evolve into something important to track. Right now I would call your attention to the following items:

Proposes a state Constitutional Parental Notification Amendment which would prohibit a physician and surgeon from performing an abortion on an un-emancipated minor without first notifying at least one parent. This is identical to the Parental Notification initiative that came close to passing a couple of years ago.

You may recall that there has always been two ways to get an initiative on a ballot in any election; through voter signature gathering and by being placed there by the legislature. Last term Gov. Brown signed a bill requiring that initiatives may only appear on general election ballots, not primary ballots also.

Putting a bill on the ballot in the manner of a resolution as is ACA (Assembly Constitutional Amendment) 5, through the legislative process, does away with expensive signature gathering, but does require a 2/3rds vote of each legislative house.

68% of Californians, according to a recent California Public Policy Institute survey, favor parental notification including about 50% of self labeled pro choice people. A legislative hearing date or committee assignment is still pending.

This is a return of last term’s AB 1338, of the same name, authorizing lower level health care employees to be trained and to perform early abortions. No stipulation as to where they may be performed. Could be a Planned Parenthood clinic. Could be a school based clinic. Who knows?

No committee assignment yet or hearing dates. This will require continual contact of one’s legislators by citizen lobbyists urging a NO vote. Last term the California Nurses Assn opposed the bill. This year they may not.

This amends the 2008 Mental Health Parity Act adding an assurance that funding is provided for mental health services in an amount equal to any other physical or mental health type program.

A couple of bills were passed in the last term expanding mental health services to school children. Also, with the latest shootings at Sandy Hook and elsewhere this has added fuel to the fire on the debate of either limiting gun purchases or expanding mental health counseling. This is another aspect of last year’s bill or Resolution put forward by Contra Costa Senator, Mark DeSaulnier, of Health Care in All things. He was acting apparently at the request of the California Council of Churches who, in 2005 published a manual entitled "Being the Good Samaritan; Health Access for All Californians.

In the same vein, in the contest between gun control vs. mental health control:

AB 202, by Republican Tim Donnelly, authorizes a pilot program to train and place “school Marshals,” with conceal carry permit guns on every campus. This is a proposal being aggressively promoted by the NRA and sweeping across the country.

The school “marshal” would most likely be a designated school employee. This calls for asking where would the money come from to train all the people required? Would this take a teacher out of the classroom and put him/her in the halls? What about the loss of classroom teacher time for the training? There are some teachers whom I would not like to see carrying guns around the school. Also, who would be funding the cost of the guns and the continual re-training and shooting practice costs? What do you bet it's the taxpayer? If it is a group such as the NRA then one needs to consider the entry of yet another private group into the educational stew we now have with mixed public/private partnerships?

SB 154, Tom Berryhill, (R-Modesto), Community Care Facilities.

This bill would make amendments, not yet stipulated, to the 1974 mentally ill, developmentally and physically disabled children and adults services, California Health and Safety Code 1501.

A spokesman in the Berryhill Sacramento office assured me that at present this is only a Spot Bill. "Mr. Berryhill" according to his office, "is the vice Chair of the Senate Health Committee and as such it is his duty to obtain a spot for a health care bill should one, not now seen, be required."

However, it is quite probable that whatever emerges as the final bill will have something to do with expanding community care services and may fit in with the current push to get everybody into community underwritten physical and mental health care counseling and mentoring.

This also presents an opportunity to open a discussion on the whole idea of moving health and welfare type services for all people into the communities. This means, churches, schools, businesses, retirement homes, and out of the hospitals, funded with federal health care dollars and mandates.

The idea of managed health care for all has many facets. The year 2005 seems to the occasion for massive government and foundation campaign to consider everyone as a client in need of some government funded program. The whole idea is to turn everyone into a dependent seeker of services. If you are not a client of some service then you are a provider of services.

In 2005 I did extensive research on a public/private coalition of service providers in Contra Costa County called Contra Costa for Every Generation: Making Our Community Aging Friendly. They published the findings of a survey they completed on Contra Costans age 65 and over. It was titled Identifying Pathways to An Aging-Friendly Community and was conducted by the AdvantAge Initiative. It was also referred to as a Cascade of Partnerships creating a Strategic Plan for all Contra Costans. In other words, every resident of Contra Costa was now seen by the members of this Partnership as one big community made healthy and security because these providers planned their futures. Approximately 250 local organizations, churches, community service providers, transportation, day care, early childhood, business groups formed this coalition to devise a plan to provide services to every single resident of Contra Costa.

Contra Costa County remains an active member community of the AdvantAge Initiative. www.vnsny.org. Contra Costa has been a model for other states and counties. It is funded mainly by AdvantAge and John Muir /Mt. Diablo Community Health Fund and the Y & H Soda Foundation or Orinda, California.

The CCEG is only one such community re-organizing operator in one county, in one state. The numbers of non-profit and government funded groups that have sprung up since 2000 could be said to be legend.

Since our American Citizens are, by all reports, growing older, and many would say sicker, there is a race to see which care provider group can grow the fastest, obtain the most government funding and present their program to the public in the most appealing, enticing manner.

One such nationwide group to emerge on the scene in 2011 is The Coalition to Transform Advanced Care, or, C-TAC. Informally it is referred to as Care Transitions. To learn more about programs of this nature link to HYPERLINK "http://www.lifetree.org" www.lifetree.org. Also Belbury Review HYPERLINK "http://www.belburyrevew.com" www.belburyrevew.com. C-TAC Hosts DC Conference.

C-TAC is founded by Bill Novelli, former AARP president and right-to-die advocate. Novelli is also associated with the Porter Novelli law firm which, in conjunction with another group called Partnership for Patients, won a $500 million contract from HHS through Section 3026 of the Affordable Care Ac. http://innovation.cms.gov/initiatives/CCTP/index.html

Another person of note in this all inclusive care provider network is Dr. Joanne Lynn, Director of Altarum Center for Elder care and Advanced Illness. HYPERLINK "http://www.altarum.org" www.altarum.org. The complete title is Altarum Center for Sustainable Health Spending. Catholic Charities and the Catholic Healthcare Foundation are listed amongst the numerous state, local and private agencies associated with Altarum.

During this year I will be writing more on this subject of the United States citizens becoming willing and maybe unwilling clients of one big health and welfare provider economy. The idea is everybody needs a mentor and the government wants to be the provider.

The health and mental health zealots see everyone as a client in need of some service. The Educators on the other hand, such as former Washington, D.C. school Superintendent Michelle Rhee, see everyone as needing a teacher or facilitator “every day all day,” as she stated during an interview with George Stephanopoulos on This Week, last Sunday, 2/3/13.

Here's the irony in all this. When you were a teenager all you longed for was a chance to be your own boss. You couldn't wait to get out from under Mom and Pop's house rules. Now, you've been in charge of your own life for years You've provided well for yourself and your family, saved and or invested your earnings. Now here comes some government do-gooders who say that you can't age efficiently by yourself. You need a whole village full of big daddies to look after you and use up your savings in ways that they want it spent.

Is that what you want to go back to? Individual government officials come and go, but government (tax) funded programs last forever unless we the people are vigilant. Look around in your city or town. What kind of five year plan for your health and safety is being planned by bureaucrats?

Ayatollah Declares He's a Revolutionary - Iran Again Humiliates U.S. Over Nuke "Negotiations"

By WILLIAM MAYER

February 7, 2013 - San Francisco, CA - PipeLineNews.org - In an angry response to the U.S. bid to "re-open" talks with the Iranian Mullocracy, today Ayatollah Khamenei belligerently rejected the entire idea as a "deceptive move."

As if the issue required further clarification, Khamenei continued on in a tone of barely contained anger, starting with the assertion [as if it's actually news] that he is a "revolutionary."

“I am not a diplomat. I am a revolutionary and speak frankly, honestly, and firmly. An offer of talks makes sense only when the side [that makes the offer] shows its goodwill...Negotiation is meaningful when the two sides talk with goodwill, under equal conditions and without seeking to deceive each other. Therefore, ‘negotiation for the sake of negotiation’, ‘tactical negotiation’ and negotiation offer in order to sell a superpower's gesture to the world is a deceptive move." [source, Iranian official news agency, Press TV, Ayatollah Khamenei rejects talks with the U.S. under pressure]

The Ayatollah was really stating the obvious, that Iran's nuclear program will never be subject to negotiation. This point was well made - albeit in an insulting manner - by the Iranian representatives at the hasty and embarrassing conclusion of the last round of such talks.

As we noted in an October 15, 2012 piece

"As summer approached, the Obama administration found itself being sandbagged by the Iranians - again - pursuing pointless multilateral "negotiations," partnering with Britain, France, Germany, China and Russia [with the U.S., called the P5+1] in a vain effort to halt the country's well advanced nuclear weapons program.

Of note, China and Russia have been particularly unhelpful in reining in the Iranians, blocking key UN votes and dealing directly with them in providing missile and nuclear technology as well as engineering support. It's difficult to imagine what positive contribution these two rogue powers would make to such an effort.

Predictably the process ended in failure, breaking down after Iran publicly humiliated the U.S. team, chastising the P5+1 proposal as unrealistic and insisting that the country would always consider its program of enrichment to be an "inalienable right," hence the major point of contention would never be negotiable.

Sitting across a table and exchanging diplomatic pabulum has never proven to be an effective formula for even slowing down Grand Ayatollah, Sayyed Ali Hosseini Khamenei's fanatical pursuit of an Iranian bomb. The country's leadership has on numerous occasions promised to destroy the state of Israel, while threatening its other "enemies" including the "Great Satan," the United States. The only weapon capable of backing up such a threat would be a nuclear arsenal..." [source, William Mayer, Is Team Obama Secretly Negotiating With Iran In Ploy To Influence Election?, PipeLineNews.org].

One might think that Iran's ploy of luring the U.S. into "negotiating" and then angrily breaking the talks off would no longer play, even with this administration. Mr. Obama must certainly know how these sessions will eventually end, yet Team Obama continues to pursue this failed strategy.

We believe the entire process is being conducted by the president to create the impression that Iran can be reasoned with, despite Iran pointedly rejecting that proposition at every turn. He is doing this because he either believes that Iran has a right to nuclear weapons or he is afraid of the consequences of a U.S. military operation to remove the threat.

Either way American security is at high risk and today's performance by the Ayatollah only adds punctuation to that point.

The purported reason for this action is to stem the rising tide of sexual harassment/violence against women which has accompanied the "Arab Spring."

"...The move is part of its efforts to curb sexual harassment, which is rampant across the country. According to state-run daily newspaper Al Ahram, the No. 909 train connecting Cairo and Alexandria departing at 9am will host the first women’s car..."

Segregation of the sexes has always been an integral component of the Shari'a and the fact that it is now going to be enforced, at least on the country's major rail lines, should not be surprising given the ascendance of the hard-line Islamists such as the Muslim Brotherhood and the Salafis.

In numerous public statements, mostly in Arabic, Egyptian president Morsi has repeatedly maintained that it is his intent to govern within a fully Shari'a compliant framework - so such a move would be fully consistent with his views.

The only credible opposition to Mr. Morsi [the Tahrir Square and other major city "rioters/demonstrators" are largely unorganized and representative of varied and often competing views regarding what "civil government" in Egypt should look like] at this point is the even more fundamentalist Salafis and one can hardly expect their influence to serve as a moderating factor in this matter.

While there may be legitimate concern over the rapidly spreading [and very real] wave of what can only be described as anti-female rage within the Egyptian culture, we believe this move is just another manifestation - a not-so-coincidental, by-product, if you will - of the society's exploding Islamist mindset under the leadership of the Muslim Brotherhood.

February 6, 2013 - San Francisco, CA - PipeLineNews.org - Although U.S. Naval spokesman George Little tried to downplay the significance of having only one aircraft carrier group assigned to the Persian Gulf, the fact is that the US carrier force in the region has been axed, in short course leaving only the USS John C Stennis remaining on duty and ready for action in this tinderbox area.

The Pentagon is blaming the halving of our basic offensive air capacity in the area on budgetary worries - code words designed to invoke fear over the specter of a sequestration plan which will automatically go into effect should Congress fail to deal with the budget by March 1.

At that point an automatic across the board $1.2 trillion cut would be imposed.

As that date quickly approaches Team Obama is ratcheting up its campaign of deception by suggesting all manner of nightmare scenarios in order to steam roll Congress into allowing the spending spree to continue ad infinitum.

Actually this is a ridiculous but deadly serious game of chicken in which the president is suggesting that any cuts to the federal budget will reduce grandma and grandpa to eating cat food, will destroy education and render hollow our defense posture.

Congress of course must share in the blame here, they put themselves in this position because neither side wanted to fight the budget battle before the November election. Therefore they agreed [along with Mr. Obama] that the best way to get a reasonable deal was to use the mechanism of sequestration - in which budget cuts are automatically triggered without any respect to their potential effect - as a sort of Sword of Damocles to force the parties to the negotiating table.

So far this hasn't worked, hence Mr. Obama's newest act of brinksmanship, disastrously reducing the ability of the United States to project power in the most dangerous area on the globe.

It's as if this bunch failed to learn the key lesson from the Benghazi tragedy, that creating the appearance of weakness in this region is in itself highly provocative and thus might well invite an attack by the Islamists which heretofore might have been unthinkable.

There is nothing really new here it's standard operating procedure when government becomes worried that its budgetary authority might be cut, even minutely. At the state and local level pink slips are sent out to teachers and police departments are notified that their budgets will also be slashed. The latter almost invariably results in threats to cut the number of beat cops thus provoking outcries from "low information voters" to stop the cuts.

The truth in this matter is rather easy to understand - without sequestration the United States is projected to spend $44 trillion over the next 10 years. Assuming sequestration happens, the projected spending will be reduced to...$43 trillion. So regardless of the threat of "draconian" cuts to DC's bloated spending habits we are looking - at most - a net reduction of only about 1% per year, an insignificant amount if one is seriously concerned about restoring the "full faith and credit" of the United States.

And all of this is upon the assumption that future Congresses will allow themselves to be held captive, bound to a pretend bare-bones budget designed by a previous Congress...yet there is no historical precedent to suggest that it has any chance of occurring, it ain't gonna' happen.

The real problem here is with the president.

Still filled with swagger over his electoral success Mr. Obama seems willing to further gamble with the nation's defense posture in order to score cheap political points which will mean nothing long term, other than serving as another sign that the current resident of 1600 Pennsylvania Ave. isn't serious about anything except speeding this country's rush towards a European type socialist state with a very limited ability to defend itself.

This isn't just folly, it's the equivalent of dereliction of duty and a casting aside of the presidential oath to preserve, protect and defend the Constitution of the United States.

May 30, 2012 - San Francisco, CA - PipeLineNews.org - On May 21, Kansas Governor Sam Brownback signed into law a piece of legislation entitled American Courts for American Laws [SB79[.

The vote was lopsided and extraordinarily bipartisan, 33-3 in the senate and a unanimous 120-0 in the house of representatives.

The bill was authored by Rep. Peggy Mast and modeled upon a framework - American Laws for American Courts, developed by the American Public Policy Alliance.

The intent of the legislation is simple, yet important, to protect the American system of jurisprudence against the intrusion of foreign/"international," often religious [read Shari'a] legal concepts and doctrines. Though a largely unrecognized phenomenon, these same foreign/religious elements have been incrementally wending their way into American court decisions for many years. A recent study commissioned by the Center for Security Policy has identified

17:19 - PDT - June 26, 2012 - San Francisco, CA - PipeLineNews.org - As reported by Egypt's, Al-Masry Al-Youm [the Independent], Wael Ghonim [who according to his book is "currently on sabbatical" from Google1.] today met with Egypt's president elect Mohammed Morsi. Morsi leads the political arm [Freedom and Justice Party, FJP] of the terrorist Muslim Brotherhood and has been a long time member of the MB's Guidance Office, which named him president of its party last year.

Insiders on the ground believe that Morsi's election came as a result of the MB's behind the scenes campaign of thuggery: voter suppression, intimidation and threats of violence, buying votes and other improprieties.

What should be of particular concern to the Western democracies is the leading role which Wael "Google" Ghonim played in the Egyptian revolution which he essentially managed through a Facebook page of his design. Now, despite his public persona as a freedom activist, he appears to have instant access to Morsi, to whom he apparently expressed the absurd notion that Morsi's aborning Islamist state should maintain a stance of, "transparency with the people in all decisions made by the government..." [source, http://www.egyptindependent.com/news/activists-meet-morsy-discuss-goals-revolution]